Posts Tagged ‘RIL’

Ten Indian companies led by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank are on the Forbes’ list of 50 of the best of Asia-Pacific’s biggest listed companies, out of a universe of 500.

‘Asian Fab 50 Companies’ ranking is topped by Taiwanese computer maker Acer, while BHEL and Airtel are the top ranked Indian companies occupying the fifth and sixth spots on the list.

Though the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) has a market value of $77.7 billion, making it the biggest Indian firm, it is ranked 39.

Forbes described its criteria for inclusion on the Fab 50 list as: “We look at long-term profitability, sales and earnings growth, stock price appreciation and projected earnings for every company in the region with revenues or market capitalisation of at least $5 billion.”

India with 10 companies comes second on the list after China which has the maximum representation of 13 firms. Hong Kong has another five, Taiwan six and Australia seven companies on the list.

“Indian companies once again had a strong showing, with 10 making our cut. Infosys and Wipro, perennial top performers, are back for the fourth year. RIL, BHEL, L&T are back for the third year,” the US business magazine said in a report accompanying the list.

About BHEL, the magazine said: “With the Indian government’s commitment to achieve ‘power for all by 2012’, the country’s largest energy equipment provider is firing up plenty of juice. Still 68 percent state-held, it holds a commanding 60 percent to 65 percent market share of India’s power capacity additions.”

On telecom major Airtel, the report said: “As many as 10 million new subscribers sign up every month for wireless access in India. One in four sign up with Bharti Airtel, not only to make calls but also to access the Web, download cricket scores and send billions of text messages.”

On Tata Steel, partly owned by the Tata group, the magazine said Ratan Tata transformed his steel company from a South Asian foundry into an enterprise spanning the rest of Asia, Europe and the US with $13 billion takeover of Anglo-Dutch Corus group last year

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (Rcom) and South African telecom giant MTN on Friday announced they were calling off talks aimed at creating a $66 billion telecom group.

“The two sides were unable to conclude the transaction due to certain regulatory issues,” said a RCOM spokesperson in a statement.

MTN and Reliance Communications started exclusive talks on May 26 and the deadline was extended to July 21.

The extension, announced on July 10, came after a claim on shares in RCom by Mukesh Ambani, estranged brother of RCom chief Anil Ambani, and a sharp drop in share prices created obstacles to completing a deal by the original deadline of July 8.

A deal would have created a $66 billion emerging markets telecom group with operations in about two dozen countries and around 120 million subscribers. When the talks began, MTN had a market capitalisation of $38 billion and Reliance Communications was worth $28 billion, but a sharp slide in markets has eroded valuations.

Mukesh’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) last month wrote to MTN saying that it has right of first refusal over a sale of controlling stake in RCom. Effectively, what Mukesh’s group has said was that any sale of a controlling stake in Reliance Communications to anyone but Reliance Industries was illegal.

MTN in a statement to Johannesburg Stock Exchange said, “With regard to exclusive negotiations relating to a potential business combination between MTN and RCOM, owing to certain regulatory issues, the parties are unable to conclude a transaction. Accordingly, it has been mutually decided to allow the exclusivity agreement to lapse.”

RIL was not immediately available for comments.

THE BIG DEAL

A history of RCom, MTN talks.

May 13: Bharti says in exploratory talks with MTN

May 16: Bharti- MTN reach ‘in-principle’ agreement and a term sheet initiated between two lead bankers